The hooded figure leans close to Elvira, whispering something. The guard nods, turning her eerie gaze to me.
“It smells different in here,” Elvira says in her stuttered cadence. “Like magic.”
I shrug. “I don’t know why. Apparently, my magic has been compromised. If I could do magic, I wouldn’t be here anymore, now would I?”
The hooded figure turns in my direction, clearly watching me, even if I can’t make out their face under their hood. They’re tall, but not as tall as Elvira, and I believe slightly shorter than me. Their build is hard to detect under the flowing robe. I can’t pick out anything specific about them. They don’t smell like magic, but any user strong enough to overpower me could certainly conjure a masking spell.
Elvira walks over to the barred window, testing its strength. She seems pleased with it, mumbling in a strange language to the other person in the room. This must be my captor.
“When are you going to tell me why I’m here and what you plan to do with me?”
“When I am ready.” The voice behind the veil rattles through me, like a mixture of a thousand voices speaking at one time, but slightly off rhythm so the words don’t land in the same place at the same time. “There is no rush.”
“What about this war Elvira spoke of?”
“Who is Elvira?” the voice asks.
The guard points to herself. “He calls me this.”
The cloaked person huffs a laugh. “Clever.”
“I’m happy to change it, but we haven’t been formally introduced yet. I assume you know my name, but I don’t know yours.”
“Nice try.” The hooded person steps closer, and for a moment, I fear they’ll detect Atlas, if they don’t already knowhe’s here. “We’re almost ready for you. Until then, enjoy your stay.”
They both turn toward the door, but I hop off the cot and bravely grab the cloaked figure’s arm. They stiffen under my touch, and I’m hit with a wave of powerful, yet oddly familiar magic that burns my fingertips.
I stumble backward in shock. I know this person. Somehow, we’ve interacted before, but the memory is too hazy to make sense of.
The figure hurries out of the room, waiting behind Elvira as she locks the cell door. Once their footsteps fade, Atlas reappears.
“Are you okay?” he asks.
“I know that person. I mean, we’ve met or something before. Their magic felt familiar. I’ve experienced it before, I just can’t remember how or who.”
“That’s a start though, right? Maybe you’ll think of it after a bit.”
“Yeah, maybe. It’s amazing they can’t detect you.”
“I give off nothing when I move to that form. It’s one step away from shifting completely.”
“Incredible.”
Atlas places his large hands on my shoulders, gently massaging. “Let’s see if we can get you relaxed and then play with your magic a little more. How does that sound?”
I nod, unable to reply with anything more substantial. My mind is a storm of thoughts ranging from the strange pull between me and Atlas to whoever the hell is holding me captive, and how I’m going to get my magic back.
It’s a lot, but maybe I can lose myself in a little pleasure for a while. Kill two birds, as the saying goes.
THIRTEEN
ATLAS
Rune continues to the door where the hooded figure and Elvira disappeared with his eyebrows furrowed and his jaw clenched. I don’t know exactly how, but I can feel the tension in his body vibrating in the space between us, like a plucked guitar string. It’s absolutely not the time for this, but my dick is still stiff from that kiss, and the taste of Rune’s mouth lingers on my tongue along with his promise ofmore.
What does he mean exactly by more? Does he actually want me to fuck him to see how much magic it might generate? Or would frotting get the job done? And how exactly am I supposed to ask him a question like that? One glaring issue is that we don’t have any lube around here. That’s not always an issue, depending on the species I’m fucking, but something tells me Rune’s human hole isn’t self-slicking and might have a bit of a tough time taking what I’m packing without it.
I suppose we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, but first I’m going to need to help him relax if he’s going to keep trying to summon his magic through me. I’m not sure how I know it,but the same way those Turkish words filled my head before, I simplyknowthat magic users need to be centered and relaxed not only to summon their magic, but to be able to direct it properly.
